Pass federal gun safety legislation in order to protect our children

Baltimore students head to City Hall along St. Paul Street in Charles Village to stage a school walkout to protest gun violence. Lloyd Fox/staff File

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy declared on Tuesday that gun violence is a public health crisis in the United States. As pediatricians, we know full well the devastation caused by firearms, and we have all witnessed the trauma of parents and caregivers whose children have suffered catastrophic injuries from guns. The screams of one child’s mother are impossible to forget. Her young son found an unsecured loaded gun in his parents’ bedroom. His teenage sister walked in and desperately tried to extract the gun from his tiny, curious hands — but a bullet fired and shot through his eye before entering his brain. The little boy immediately became unconscious and had a seizure. By the time he arrived at the hospital, there was nothing that could be done to save his life, and he was pronounced dead. His mother’s heart-wrenching cries could not bring him back. In addition to his parents’ grief, his sister was left with lifelong guilt and trauma because of how her brother died.

His family’s world was destroyed by this tragic — and preventable — loss of life.

On May 21, 80 pediatricians and child health professionals visited Capitol Hill to urge Congress to take action to protect our children from gun violence, the leading cause of childhood death in our country. We have the agonizing responsibility of caring for children and families whose lives have been torn apart by these weapons. That these tragedies are preventable only amplifies our anguish.

Unfortunately, these stories are far too common. Nearly 5,000 children and adolescents are killed by guns each year, usually in their own home. Nearly a third of all incidents are either unintentional or due to self-harm, but in children under five the cause is almost always unintentional. The guns used in these tragedies are usually loaded and unlocked. The children who do not die from their injuries end up with lifelong physical and emotional consequences that lead to millions in health care costs and immeasurable sorrow.

As pediatric clinicians, we are committed to preventing childhood injuries and deaths. Pediatricians have long been staunch advocates of legislation that makes the world safer for our children. When unintentional poisonings were the most common pediatric medical emergency, we pushed for child-proof medicine bottles, leading to an 80% reduction in mortality. When motor vehicle crashes became the leading cause of pediatric deaths, we helped enact state laws that mandate car seats, which reduce mortality by up to 71%. When guns surpassed motor vehicles as the leading cause of death in children in 2020, we stepped up to protect them. As pediatricians and child health professionals, we cannot stay silent as gun violence has become the number-one killer of children. Like with any other public health crisis, we need to take action.

Congress needs to act on commonsense gun safety legislation. Guns and ammunition are some of the only consumer products immune from federal product safety laws. Gun manufacturers and sellers have no legal obligation to report safety defects, recall defective guns or require functional safety devices. If they won’t take action to protect children, then we must. With the passage of Ethan’s Law, all guns in households with children would be required to be safely stored and secured. States that have already enacted these laws have experienced significant reductions in unintentional firearm deaths.

As pediatricians, it is our privilege to partner with policymakers, families, and communities to keep children out of harm’s way and enable them to grow into healthy adults. Safe gun storage has been proven to save lives. As recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, guns should be stored unloaded, locked up, and with ammunition locked separately. Storing guns appropriately decreases gun injuries in the home and suicide by guns. We need federal legislation to enforce safe storage. Now is the time for Congress to act and pass Ethan’s Law to create federal requirements for safe firearm storage.

Dr. Cassie Stegall ([e-mail]) is a pediatrician in Virginia and an advocate for OnCall4Kids, a coalition of medical professionals supporting firearm safety regulation. The following medical professionals and OnCall4Kids advocates also contributed to this piece: Heidi Appel, Priti Bhansali, Joanna Cohen, Elizabeth Ireson, Melissa Simkol and Barry Solomon.